BOOK REVIEW: Sing Out Warning Sing Out Love The Writings Of Lee Hays (Robert Koppelman Editor)

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I couldn't review one of these wonderful books without reviewing the other. As part of my research I discovered a second book, this one a compilation of Lee's writing. As well as a talented singer, Lee Hays was also a talented and prolific writer. He wrote everything from songs (many of which he and The Weavers recorded, along with many others), to poetry, to short stories (fiction and non-fiction) to articles and reviews... and so much more. Upon his death, all of his personal papers were donated to The Smithsonian museum Altogether, there are about 27,000 pages, and if stacked, the pile would be almost 7 feet tall. A young man named Robert Koppel,an, who took an interest in folk music, decided that these papers would be great as part of a book. He met with Lee's biographer and friend Doris Willems (see my previous post) as part of his research, and edited some of the original papers, so that they would go nicely in a book. He also added his own introduction, and a little bit of background information, on Lee's life. This book is absolutely spectacular!! It contains a nice selection of Lee's song lyrics, poetry, fiction and non fiction of various genres and some autobiographical writings. It's a very nice compilation. After reading it cover to cover, I decided I was going to find those original papers. As luck would have it, some ambitious soul photographed every page in the collection (I bet that took years!!!) and uploaded them onto the internet, as part of an on-line Smithsonian exhibit. Heaven Bless Them!!! Now that I've read the book (and so have my husband and mother), I'm in the process of reading Lee's notes on line. Lee wrote about anything and everything, no matter how controversial He wrote about it all very elegantly, too. Not everything in his life was a bed of roses, but he did experience a lot of happiness. Lee had a very honest way of writing in which he hid nothing, but in such a way that if a small child got a hold of his papers, the child would not learn too much of the adult world, while the adult would understand what he meant perfectly. I highly recommend this book, along with his biography. You can see my other book review by clicking on the tags at the top.